I bought a Bonsai plant for my office window a couple months ago, not knowing anything about them. I make sure the soil stays moist and I fertilize it with premixed miracle grow once every week or two. It always gets lots of sunlight and I turn it every few days so it all gets some sun. Today, when I went into work, I noticed the leaves were shriveled​ and falling off. I found this forum and hope I can get some help. I read that the glued gravel and moss needs to go first. So, I brought the poor thing home and started dismatling it. The soil is really compacted, so I got a wooden vegetable skewer and started trying to break the soil up around it's roots. THEN! I found the balls! I have no clue what they are. They are grey and feel like a turtle egg. I took one to the porch and popped it, but just liquid came out. I'm praying it's not some nasty bug infestation! I do see teeny tiny movements in the soil. It's got me pretty freaked....anyway, a few questions
1. What kind of plant do I have?
2. Are those eggs??
3. How do I save my plant and not have bugs all over my house??
I have attached a picture of what it used to look like, what it looks like now, and the freaky balls.

Jdotson12​ wrote: I bought a Bonsai plant for my office

We could stop there without further reading. This is a very often posted story - bonsai will NOT do well in offices.
But I see you brought it home.

Itś a ligustrum (for as far as I can properly identify the shriveled leaves).
The balls are Osmocote. Continue to give your mallsai (thatś what it is, looking at the first photo you cannot really call this a bonsai) proper care and wait patiently. It might come back (chances are low though).

Thank you, I feel much better about the balls! But, I have a few more questions.
Why is an office bad? It's not much different than being in a house. We keep our office 73 and he was in the big open window behind my desk that gets sun most of the day.
What makes a bonsai a bonsai? I know this means nothing, but the stick label that came in the soil simply said "BONSAI".
Should I continue what I've been doing with it as far as water and premixed miracle grow?
Do I need to get new soil?
What about sunlight? was he getting too much?
Like I said, I know nothing about these plants, I've never had much of a green thumb. It just looked like a beautiful, hearty plant.

Hi, and welcome.

In general, plants belong outside. Indoors is too dark abd dry with stationary air, all of which plants do not appreciate. Some will survive. Often plants stay indoors for winter. But most serious growers of bonsai keep them outside. It is much easier to get the plants to thrive there.

Bonsai is the art of growing trees in small form. What you have is a coockie cutter plant, without any representation of a tree. A commercially pushed image of what bonsai mihht look like. To get to bonsai it has to match criteria such as taperee trunk and branches, ramnification, clear rootspread etcetc. This just does not.

Jdotson12​ wrote: Thank you, I feel much better about the balls! But, I have a few more questions.
Why is an office bad? It's not much different than being in a house. We keep our office 73 and he was in the big open window behind my desk that gets sun most of the day.
What makes a bonsai a bonsai? I know this means nothing, but the stick label that came in the soil simply said "BONSAI".
Should I continue what I've been doing with it as far as water and premixed miracle grow?
Do I need to get new soil?
What about sunlight? was he getting too much?
Like I said, I know nothing about these plants, I've never had much of a green thumb. It just looked like a beautiful, hearty plant.

This is a Bonsai (same species as your plant). When you look at it, it looks like a tree, doesn't it? Not only it looks like a tree, but a beautiful one. Notice the taper (trunk and branches get thinner as you go up the tree). Notice the small leaves (not achievable with all trees, and not during all year). Also, look at the ramification, definitely a tree.

Jdotson12​ wrote: I know this means nothing, but the stick label that came in the soil simply said "BONSAI".

As a rule of thumb, any plant that is sold with the label "BONSAI" in stead of the tree species is not a bonsai.
You have a decorative plant - that isn't even meant to last long.

Well, decorative plant is what I was going for when I bought it, so that doesn't matter, I asked out of curiosity. My biggest question is, can I save it? I've gotten pretty attached to it and I've seen where others have saved theirs. I just need to know what to do.

Jdotson12​ wrote: Well, decorative plant is what I was going for when I bought it, so that doesn't matter

Actually, it does matter. Doing bonsai is not the same as taking care for a decorative house plant. The quality of a real bonsai is different from the quality of a mass-produced mallsai.

I cannot tell if it will survive. Give it proper care (see the Tree Species guidelines, top of the page) and hope for the best.

You guys have been completely unhelpful and sorta rude. I am not trying to be mean, but if this is what "doing bonsai" is about, I do not want a part of it. That's not even what I was going for. Do you know that average people do not know what "doing bonsai" is. I didn't until yesterday and only do now because after I posted here and got these ridiculous answers, I had to go into a more in depth search.. And I posted on another forum where they were much nicer and actually tried to help. ALL I wanted to know was what kind of plant I have and how I can try to save it. I am in no way interested it anything else. I just figured that other people with "little trees" have seen this before, and would know how to help it. I mean, come on, it doesn't kill you to be nice to someone, but no, you guys have to be condescending and point out the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing. Well, duh.....thats why I came here and asked for help. And no, it doesn't matter, I was looking for a decorative plant, and obviously that's what I found. Thank you for your time, but I will not be back on here.

huh? sorry, but I do not think I deserved that.